Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Bangladesh??

OK, we have a week off to celebrate the biggest holiday of the year in China – no work, no school, and vacation money saved up. Maybe beach relaxation, skiing excitement, hotel pool, shopping, eating out, history and museum trekking…what to do?

How about an exhausting, challenging, uncomfortable week spent in a poor, dusty, seemingly forgotten place? How about Home of Love Orphanage, in Chittagong, Bangladesh?
If you don’t know Bangladesh, the photos will help. But statistics say it is the most densely populated country on earth, and one of the absolute poorest. There are so few flight choices that it takes 3 flights and an overnight stay along the way to get there, even coming from nearby China. The statistics were right, economic conditions are tough. We spent the week living at the orphanage.
We ate there.
We worked.
We cried for them.
But as we found out, statistics don’t tell the whole story.
What we didn’t know, is what life we would find inside this place!
What love!
In the midst of everything else, Home of Love is a place making a world of difference. People who believe in God’s call joined together to form a home of love for kids that the world has overlooked. And we were privileged to be there!
Funny how God works. Long after I am forgotten by these kids, I will still remember the effect they have on me. So who exactly is helping who??
Some things in life leave you never quite the same afterward…this was one of them.

Love, the Allens